Former Chief of Staff of the Czech Army, decorated with the Legion of Honor and the Cross of French Military Valor for his role in the rescue of around fifty French soldiers trapped by Serbian and Croatian fire during the war in Bosnia, General Petr Pavel, 61, is preparing to take office as President of the Czech Republic on Thursday 9 March.
This convinced pro-European and Atlanticist receives guests in the small palace in Prague which has been assigned to him since his victory in the January elections against the populist oligarch Andrej Babis. He intends to take his time before moving to Prague Castle: his teams claim to want to first ” to secure ” the offices of the presidency occupied for the past ten years by Milos Zeman, his predecessor known for his pro-Russian and pro-Chinese positions.
Along with the Bulgarian president, you are the second active head of state in the European Union to be a former soldier. How do you see this symbol in the middle of the war in Ukraine?
It’s not that common, but I don’t see it as anything special, I retired four years ago, which is long enough to be considered almost a civilian. But, of course, this expertise gave me an advantage over my opponents in the elections, because people are concerned about the conflict in Ukraine and they believe that someone with military experience will be able to guide them towards a future safer.
Why did you decide to go into politics?
When I retired at the end of 2018, I had no political ambitions. I started traveling across the country to attend conferences to raise awareness of security and international political issues. But I realized that the populists had a good chance of winning the election and making the Czech Republic follow the same path as Hungary; Andrej Babis was directly inspired by Viktor Orban. This was the main reason that pushed me to run for the presidency.
Over the past twenty years, your two predecessors have stood out on the European scene for their pro-Russian and pro-Chinese positions. Is this the end of this period?
The two presidents you mentioned [Vaclav Klaus et Milos Zeman] shared the idea of being a bridge between West and East. It was a very strange ambition. Personally, I am totally convinced that there is no possible intermediate position. We must be very clear about the world we belong to: that of democracies, not that of different degrees of authoritarian rule. I’m not claiming that the European Union or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are perfect, but they are the best options we have.
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